I had been considering this for my next heresy when the Ted Haggard story broke, and so I used that as my platform for this heresy. Then Scott suggested that I call it my next heresy, not knowing that it already was. So here goes.
What if...
What if the Bible's message of grace actually extends to sinners?
What if, when Paul says that there is "no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." he actually means it?
What if the "nothing" that can separate us from the love of God includes our own sin?
What if the reason that God picked sinful men like Abraham and David as men of faith is that all he had to work with were sinful men?
What if the Biblical assertion that "our righteousness is like filthy rags" actually means that God does not have any unrealistic expectations? That He expects us to sin because we are sinners?
What if Paul was serious when he said that he was totally incapable of defeating sin?
What if God loves us, not because we are lovable, but just because He love us?
What if the assertion in Ted Dekker's book Obsessed, that God is obsessed with loving men, is correct?
Would it have any impact on the way I treat myself, or the way I treat others, if I really, honestly, truly believed that God's grace is for me -- because He knows me, He knows I sin, He knows I will always sin, but He wants me to be His friend anyways?
Could I love a disgraced man more easily if I knew not only that he was a sinner, but that I was a sinner as well?
Can I hope to be happier, more content with who I am, more at peace with myself and God, unless I accept the reality of my nature, not as an excuse to keep on sinning, but as an excuse to run to my Savior, who does not reject me in my sin, but died for me there?
What if He loves me when I am imperfect?
Would it make any difference?
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1 comment:
Excellent!
A few years ago I read the first Left Behind book and it disturbed me profoundly, touching off something of a crisis in faith. I couldn't help but feel there was something really scary in the way that God was presented in that book, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I talked it over with my pastor, and then I finally realized... it seemed like in that book all the saved were defined by being right. Not "right with God" but correct about every last detail about him. Each raptured Christian believed the exact same thing down to the last detail as every other raptured Christian and all those "left behind" were the ones who got it wrong. Faith was essentially boiled down to being correct.
So where's the grace? If salvation comes from being "right," then we don't really need God, we just need to be smart enough to be right.
The point you make here is such a relief... God's grace IS sufficient. I don't HAVE to be "right" or get my act together. Salvation as reward for getting it right has it completely backwards--following God is what we do out of gratitude for salvation we already received. What a relief!
I'm enjoying this "heresy" series.
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